before a vowel crypt-, combining form from Gr. κρυπτός hidden, concealed, secret. (Not so used in ancient Greek, where the sense was expressed by κρυφο-, κρυψι-.)
1. Forming the first element in many scientific words of modern formation. The more important of these occur in their alphabetical order: others are Cryptobranch, an animal with concealed or covered branchiæ or gills; Cryptobranchiate a., having the gills concealed; spec. applied to certain divisions of crustacea, gastropods, etc. Cryptocarp, the sexual fruit of certain sea-weeds, also called CYSTOCARP; hence Cryptocarpic, Cryptocarpous a., having the fruit or fruiting organs concealed. Cryptocephalous a., having the head concealed. Cryptocerous a. Entom., having concealed ‘horns’ or antennæ. Cryptoclastic a. Min. (see quot.). Cryptoclite Gramm. (see quot.). Cryptocrystalline a. Min., indistinctly or imperfectly crystalline, having the crystalline structure concealed; so Cryptocrystallization, Cryptodirous a., having a concealed or concealable neck; applied to some tortoises with retractile necks. Cryptodont a. or sb., having the teeth concealed or suppressed; applied to certain palæozoic bivalve mollusks. Cryptolalic a. nonce-wd., of the nature of secret speech. Cryptolin [L. oleum oil] (see quot.). Cryptolite Min., native phosphate of cerium found enclosed in crystals of apatite. Cryptomonad, one of a family of infusoria. Cryptomorphite Min., a native borate of calcium and soda, of cryptocrystalline structure. Cryptoneurous a., having no discernible nervous system. Cryptopentamerous Entom., having one of the five joints of the tarsi minute or concealed. Cryptophyte Bot. rare, a synonym of cryptogam, or a name for the lowest cryptogams. Cryptopia, Cryptopine Chem., an alkaloid found in opium. Cryptorchid, -orchidism, -orchism Path. (see quots.). Cryptostoma, pl. -stomata Bot., little circular pits found on the surface of some sea-weeds (Treas. Bot., 1866). Cryptozygous a., in Craniology, having the zygomatic arches not seen when the skull is viewed from above; hence Cryptozygosity.
1882. Geikie, Text Bk. Geol., II. II. § 111. 88. Cryptoclastic or compact, where the grains are too minute to reveal to the naked eye the truly fragmental character of the rock.
1875. March, Anglo-Saxon Gram., 52. Irregular nouns … disguised by phonetic changes (Cryptoclites).
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 72. Crypto-crystalline.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XI. 634/1. A cryptocrystalline variety of quartz.
1889. Sat. Rev., 26 Oct., 445/1. On some cryptographic or cryptolalic system.
1863–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., II. 114. Cryptolin, an organic liquid, found … in cavities of topaz, chrysoberyl, quartz-crystals … and amethyst…. Cryptolin, when exposed to the air, speedily hardens into a yellowish, transparent, resinous body.
1850. Dana, Geol., 236. The crystals of … cryptolite are microscopic.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 7/2. In the Cryptomonads … the proboscis is of a similar character.
1861. Amer. Jrnl. Sc., Ser. II. XXXII. 9. Cryptomorphite.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Cryptoneurous, applied by Rudolphi to a series of animals the nervous system of which is mingled and confounded with the mass which constitutes them, as the zoophytes.
1869. Biennial Retrospect Med. & Surg., 475. Messrs. C. and H. Smith have extracted from opium a new alkaloid to which they assign the name cryptopia.
1879. Watts, Dict. Chem., VI. 514. Cryptopine … crystallises … in microscopic six-sided prisms or tables.
1874. Van Buren’s Dis. Genit. Org., 390. A cryptorchid … is an individual whose scrotum contains no testicles.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Cryptorchidism, the condition of a Cryptorchis. Cryptorchis, term for one whose testicles have not descended into the scrotum, but remain in the abdomen.
1878. Bartley, trans. Topinard’s Anthrop., II. iii. 288. When [the facial angle] is negative, the [zygomatic] arches are cryptozygous or concealed.
2. From these crypto- passes into the status of a separable element, which may be prefixed, a. to sbs. of any origin, with the sense ‘concealed, unavowed,’ as in Crypto-Calvinist, a name given in the 16th c. in Germany to those Lutherans who secretly held or sympathized with Calvinistic tenets (= Philippist, or Melanchthonian), and in France to professing Roman Catholics accused of being secretly Calvinists; hence, Crypto-Calvinism, † -Calvinianism, -Calvinistic a. So Crypto-Catholic, -Catholicism, -Christian, -deist, -Fenian, -heresy, heretic, -Jesuit, -lunatic, proselyte, -Royalist, -Socinian, etc.; also crypto-insolence, veiled insolence; b. to adjs. with the sense ‘secretly, unavowedly,’ as in crypto-splenetic.
1760. trans. Keysler’s Trav. IV. 289. The sword with which secretary Krell was beheaded for his *Crypto-calvinianism.
1856. Hardwick, Ch. Hist. Reform., 176, note. ‘Philippism,’ or *Crypto-Calvinism, was principally found in the Palatinate.
1764. Maclaine, trans. Mosheim’s Eccl. Hist. (1884), II. 94. The schemes of the *Crypto-Calvinists, or secret abertors of Calvinism, being thus disconcerted.
1883. Beard, Reformation, v. 182. Whoever would not subscribe every article of ultra-Lutheran orthodoxy was a Crypto-Calvinist.
1798. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXVII. 515. The charge of *Crypto-Catholicism. Ibid. (1800), in Monthly Mag., VIII. 598. This fraternity of darkness, of crypto-proselytism, crypto-catholicism, and crypto-jesuitism.
1888. M. MacColl, in Contemp. Rev., April, 544. The large number of Christians who professed Islam, but remained *crypto-Christians.
1885. H. N. Oxenham, Short Studies, xxvi. 244. He [Thomas Paine] was already a *crypto-deist.
1887. Plumptre, Dante’s Commedia, II. 382. The symbolic cypher of a *crypto-heresy.
1881. Spectator, 15 Jan., 77. The *crypto-insolence which so often underlies journalistic argument about Irishmen. Ibid. (1889), 16 Nov., 661/1. M. Thiers, after ordering a storm of the poor quarters of Paris, allowed many thousand persons, half of them *crypto-lunatics, to be executed.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. III. ii. A traitorous *Crypto-Royalist class. Ibid. (1858), Fredk. Gt. (1865), II. VI. iv. 170. A weak croaky official gentleman, of a *crypto-splenetic turn.
